I mentioned to a friend of mine, that I would be trying to make scotch eggs with haggis in them, and a look of disgust flashed, albeit briefly, across his face. On probing further the reason for his antipathy, he asked me whether I knew what was in haggis (this coming from a man I’ve seen eat donner kebabs and unlucky fried kitten on several occasions). ‘What’s in it?’ I asked conspiratorialy,’ because I caught this one just this last weekend on the Scottish Moorlands. Tricky bugger he was to catch too’.

I do know what’s in haggis, and I don’t care, because I think it’s delicious. For the record, I also like faggots, chitterlings, kidney, and liver. I like trotters, and pigs ears and black pudding. I even like a Domino’s Meat Feast Pizza on occasion. But I don’t like to talk about that much.

I was tempted to save doing this until Burns night, but once I have an idea in my head, I tend to have to follow it through. So here it is, the closest thing to Scottish that a Scotch Egg will actually get. These, even if they were made purely with pork sausagemeat (just double the amount of pork and drop the Haggis) are a world away from shop bought scotch eggs, even the good quality ones have nothing on the home made. And these are really easy, if a little messy, to make. To make 6 scotch eggs.

2 slices of stale white bread, whizzed down to crumbs in a food processor

2 tbsp plain flour

oil for deep frying

For the whisky sauce:

20ml whisky

100ml double cream

1 tbsp dijon mustard

A few hours ahead of forming the eggs, mix the sausagemeat and the haggis together by hand and store it in the fridge. It will probably be fairly sticky to handle. When ready to make them, and you can do that in advance if you like, divide the haggis mixture into 6 balls. Sprinkle some flour onto a piece of clingfilm and roll out the ball with a floured pin/hand. You may find it easier to lift the partially rolled haggis mix onto your hand and finish shaping it there. The piece needs to be about 6 by 4 inches. Dust the egg in the flour and shake off the excess. Put the egg in the middle of the haggis mixture and shape around it, until the egg is completely coated. Seal the joins with your fingers and roll around on some more flour.

Dip the haggis coated egg into the beaten egg and then roll in the breadcrumbs. Heat around 4 cm of oil in a deep frying pan (I used a wok) until it has reached 180-190 degrees (it’s hot enough when you can drop a small cube of bread in and it turns brown within a minute). Carefully (please be careful!) put the scotch eggs into the hot oil and cook for around 8 minutes, turning occasionally, until they are browned on all sides. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen towel.

To make the sauce, heat a small pan over a medium flame and pour in the whisky, and add the dijon mustard. Quickly pour in the cream and turn the heat down. Cook the sauce until the cream has reduced by around half and serve with the eggs. Serve both with a sharp salad.